PocketGamer.biz Week That Was: Farewell Flappy Bird, Supercell's $892 million sales, and Molyneux says F2P is a sledgehammer
The past 7 days in bite-sized portions
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Alas, poor Flappy Bird - we hardly knew ye.
After nearly upending everything we thought we knew about discovery and how the App Store worked, you strut and fret your hour upon the stage and then went silent.
While many are now looking for ways to recapture your sound and fury, others are convinced that you ultimately signified nothing.
In either case, you certainly made the beginning of 2014 more interesting with your unexpected presence and we'll have clones of you to remember you by for months to come.
With the eulogy complete, it's time to take a look back at the PocketGamer.biz week that was.
GDC 2014- Planning to be in San Francisco for GDC? If so check out our Ultimate Party Guide for tips on where to find the most fun and where the next Big Indie Pitch will be held.
- Rodeo Games became the first purely mobile studio to license Unreal Engine 4, although the game powered by it won't be out until 2015. It said it went this route to stand out from the crowd.
- Publisher MyGamez shed some light on how its Finnish business mentality and single SDK integration can help western devs crack China.
- Applifier, meanwhile, announced the launch of Everyplay for Android.
- And our latest PocketGamer.biz survey showed that while Nordics and Japanese spend the most on development, Chinese shops spend the most on promotion.
- Our Chart of the Week takes a look at Amazon's push to help HTML5 apps find the sweet spot between wide distribution and focused monetisation.
- Our In-App Purchase Inspector, meanwhile, fixed its gaze on the appeal of Rovio's racer, Angry Birds Go!.
- While our Charticle examined the long-lasting success of Subway Surfers.
- During his fireside chat at Casual Connect, Peter Molyneux dubbed F2P a not particularly 'delightful' tactic and likened it to 'smashing consumers over the head with a sledgehammer'.
- Brjann Sigurgeirsson, the man behind SteamWorld Dig, argued that mobile gamers are more interested in 'passing the time' than they are in gaming.
- And Jussi Laakkonen from Applifier remarked that developers need to care about their sharers.
- Carter Dotson from 148Apps shared a few lessons we can all learn from Flappy Bird.
- While Catalin Alexandru from Full Indie UK reflected on why the industry is scared of Flappy Bird's success.
- Speaking at Casual Connect, MAG Interactive shared its tips for scaling your game for overnight success.
- Also at Casual Connect, Creative Mobile's Vladimir Funtikov pointed to Flappy Bird as a great example of an accidental guerrilla marketing campaign.
- Our Mobile Mixer from Casual Connect focused on unlocking UA, and gave tips for how to navigate life after Flappy Bird.
- Research from Flurry suggested that the magic of Christmas is fading - pointing to a yuletide drop off in download growth.
- Our 2013 App Promotion report is here to help, incidentally, if you're looking ahead to 2014's holiday UA rush.
- Meanwhile, AppScotch exited stealth mode to unveil its strategy for turning ads into streamed, playable demos of your game.
- And we shared some tips gleaned from the Big Indie Pitch SF on how to pitch your game to the press.
- COPPA compliance outfit AgeCheq secured $1 million in a Series A investment round.
- And former PopCap studio director Todd English joined up with GameDuell.
- Supercell reported its 2013 revenue was $892 million as it ramps up to launch its 'risky' third game, Boom Beach.
- Nexon saw its mobile sales slip 5 percent to $64 million in FY13 Q4.
- Chinese outfit NetEase, meanwhile, saw its sales tick up 17% to $1.6 billion.
- And Gamevil saw record FY13 sales as they shot up 16% to $76 million.